I appeared in the poor district of Dragon Gate City and began to make my way towards the Blue Wind Pavilion.
How did I want to approach this? Mei should be at the front door of the Pavilion, and it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to simply recreate my first visit, but was that what I wanted? Did it matter? Mei and WuJing both had powerful social blessings, so nothing I did would have too much of an effect on them, but I wasn’t sure about the others in the Pavilion.
WuJing was the floor manager of this branch of the Blue Wind Pavilion, so he wasn’t the top brass, and I had no information about the people above him. Placing him in a managerial role, showed some level of trust, but how much would those people believe in me?
Unless I was willing to be WuJing’s pet alchemist, like I had been for Elder Mu, I needed to put on a show for the higher-ups to make myself appear valuable. At the same time, I needed to make sure it was me that appeared valuable, not one of my possessions, such as the fire seed. Even if the Pavilion was trustworthy, owning a treasure was a crime everywhere, so it needed to be clear that I was the treasure, not my possessions.
“System,” I said after ducking into a side alley, “I want to purchase robes that would be worn by a respectable Disciple Alchemist, a young prodigy who is considered to have a bright future.”
Cost 1,000 credits.
That seemed outrageously expensive for a few pieces of clothing, but I had to put my trust in the System here. Was it including a price on information about what young prodigies wear? I had only lived in the Su Clan and the Twin Mountains Sect, so I didn’t know much about local fashions.
“Purchase it,” I quickly decided.
Confirmed. Cost 1,000 credits. 549,270 credits remaining
The robes appeared in my system storage, but I didn’t rush to put them on. Just by looking at them, I could tell they were something no one in this part of town would be wearing, so I held off until I reached a nicer part of town.
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The Blue Wind Pavilion was a massive eight-story pagoda that stood on a large marble foundation. The exterior walls were painted a bright red. Azure tiled eaves stuck out at every floor, and brightly decorated blue beams at the top of the walls, under the eaves, tied everything together. At the corners of the roof, small ridge beast adornments had been placed as auspicious totems.
To someone standing on the street in front of it, the Blue Wind Pavilion’s presence was supreme. It towered over the small two- or three-story wooden buildings surrounding it.
I walked down the street towards the Pavilion dressed in my new hanfu robes. They were made of deep black silk. The torso of the robes was pitch black, but below the waistband was a light gray which darkened back to the same black at the hem. Strands of flames had been embroidered in gold and red thread, and as the fabric sifted, the flames almost seemed to dance as sunlight sparkled off them. And, more than just looking impressive, I found that formations have been sewn into them to keep them clean and control the temperature.
I was the epitome of a young master. I looked like the master of all young masters. I walked down the street with complete confidence, knowing that no one would even think of stopping me, and I felt like a complete fraud.
I would never have even considered wearing such an ostentatious outfit on my own, and even though this is what the System had implied would be the normal dress for someone with my abilities, I still wasn’t very comfortable in it. The only thing that kept me walking forward was knowing that no matter what I was wearing, Mei would know how to handle it. In all my time in this world, she was the only person I had ever felt completely comfortable around.
I entered the Pavilion and was greeted by the noise of countless customers browsing and shopping for goods. The entire place was brightly lit by large windows on every wall and small glowing orbs in dozens of chandeliers.
I looked around to see if I could find Mei, but as I was turning, a young woman dressed in the blue and silver qipao dress of a Pavilion attendant approached me.
“Hello, sir. My name is Ye SuYin. How can I help you today?” she said, clasping her hands and giving a bow.
SuYin was young and pretty, and her smile revealed dimpled cheeks. She was a little shorter than the other attendants, but since everyone was wearing the same qipao, and everyone’s hair was fixed in the same elaborate bun with a jade hairpin and golden comb, it was hard to tell one attendant from the next.
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I had wanted to speak with Mei first, but as a budding, young, magnanimous alchemist, it would be wrong to simply turn this girl away. While I hadn’t cultivated the technique to force myself to be more personable yet, that was still the persona I wanted to embody.
“Hello,” I said, nodding my head to SuYin, “I would like to see your alchemic pills. Please show me what Rank 1 pills you offer and let me know their prices.”
“Right this way, sir,” she said, guiding me to the right side of the Pavilion.
She led me to rows of glass counters that held a wide variety of jade pill bottles.
“We have a variety of Rank 1 and Rank 2 pills for sale. We also have contracts with Grandmasters Alchemists who can help us procure most Rank 3 pills. All our pills are High-Purity with an efficacy of over 90%, and for a small premium, we can guarantee pills above 95% efficacy.”
“And what types of pills do you sell?”
“We maintain a stock of all commonly requested pills, including Qi Gathering Pills, Purifying Pills for every qi type, Healing Pills, Antidote Pills, Qi Empowerment Pills, and even Explosive Pills.” As she talked, she gestured to various counters. “For less common pill types, we have alchemists that can prepare most pills you could request. If the request is exceeding rare, as long as you provide a pill formula, if we have the herbs in stock, we guarantee a High-Purity 90% effective pill within a day for any Rank 1 pill. We cannot guarantee a timeframe for higher-rank pills, but we can procure them. If the recipe uses especially rare ingredients that we do not stock, further negotiations may be required.”
“All of your pills are High-Purity?”
“Yes,” she said confidently. “And not just passible. Our Rank 1 pills are among the best High-Purity pills available.”
“Do you sell Perfect Pills?”
For the first time, SuYin became hesitant. “Perfect pills are exceedingly rare, and they are unavailable at this branch. If that is what you require, they are possible to procure, but they will need to be ordered from another branch. If you are willing to wait, they can be added to a standard delivery, but if you need them soon, the extra fee would be substantial.”
“What are the costs?” I decided to ask. “Let’s say for a Basic Qi Gathering Pill.”
“The basic price is twenty silver. If you want one with guaranteed higher efficacy, it is twenty-five.”
“And for a Perfect one?”
“The base price would be fifty silver, with a guaranteed efficacy of at least 99%. However, again, we do not carry them in stock. Ordering them from another branch would require time and money, and most customers would consider the exchange unacceptable.”
“What if I do not lack money and am willing to wait?” I asked.
“We can accommodate you, but I would recommend a higher-level pill. We can guarantee the same efficacy on a Perfect Superior Qi Gathering Pill for two gold. Since you would be delayed anyway, the extra time could be used to prepare to absorb the more powerful pill.”
I nodded at her explanation. While she was trying to up-sell me, it did make sense in this situation, as long as I wasn’t concerned about the price.
“What are the prices for purifying pills?”
“The base price is one gold each, with a 10% additional cost for higher guaranteed efficacy.”
“What if I sold you a High-Purity Water Qi Purifying pill at 95% efficacy? How much would you pay?”
SuYin seemed to have expected that question and quickly responded. “Our general price for buying pills is 35% of the profit plus the cost of ingredients. Such a pill would sell for one gold, and the cost of ingredients is forty silver, so the standard purchase price is 61 silver, but that can fluctuate with availability and demand.”
It was interesting that she freely shared a solid calculation with me. In the past, I was just given a purchase price. I doubted she had a blessing like Mei’s, so was this just the effect of presenting myself as a respectable person?
“Can you take me to see your herbs?” I asked.
“This way, sir.”
She guided me to a nearby collection of shelves. The moment I passed an invisible threshold, my nose was assaulted by the fragrance of the various herbs. Many of them were sitting openly in bins where customers could pick up and examine them. Some had been placed in sealed boxes, and a few were locked under a glass display case.
As expected, the Rank 1 herbs were all pretty standard. Since mortal farmers could easily harvest high-quality Rank 1 herbs, they held little value, and I had never seen examples that had been improved by an herbalist.
The Rank 2 herbs were surprisingly high quality, though. Those displayed openly were nearly the same quality as the Rank 1 herbs, and those held under lock and key had an immense amount of medicinal energy stored within. It would be a joy to work with them.
I considered my situation. I didn’t have much money. While I could buy some from the System, that would be a ludicrous waste of credits. Hopefully what I had would be enough to get started, but I could sell some of the pills from my storage space to gather more if needed.
Still, this entire encounter wasn’t going the way I had initially hoped. I had planned to quickly get into contact with WuJing in a way that he would treat me as a friend. I guess it didn’t matter too much. It was all an act anyway, and he would only be behaving as directed, but I longed for a feeling of camaraderie. Even if he was just trying to get something from me, he would at least know how to act like that wasn’t the case.
I sighed and pondered my options as I continued to peruse the herbs. After a few moments, I walked back over to SuYin.
“Could you please show me around a little more? What else do you offer?”
“Of course, sir. I can give you a tour.”
As she began to guide me away from the herbs, another woman dressed in the same blue and silver qipao approached us.
“SuYin,” she said with a smile, “let me take it from here.”
“M…Mei,” SuYin stuttered. “But…”
“Don’t worry,” said Mei, “you’ll receive proper credit and compensation, but I need to handle this.”
Then, Mei turned to me and smiled. “Welcome back to the Blue Wind Pavilion. Our manager, Chen WuJing, is eager to meet with you. Please, follow me.”
I smiled at Mei and nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”